So, I decided that I wanted to know what was going in to Iraq’s constitution. I guess I’m some kind of a constitution junky (if that’s at all possible). Regardless of my reasons I set out to read the proposed Iraqi constitution. I found a copy of it that was translated by the Associated Press. It’s only 25 pages long, so it’s an easy read if you want to play the home game. I figured I would give my little commentary on the whole thing so I don’t feel like I’m just doing this for myself.
So, there’s this whole introduction that basically gives a history of Iraq’s trials, tribulations, and successes. My favorite line from this part, “We the sons of Mesopotamia, … the creators of the alphabet”. Yeah that’s right – they brag about how they created the alphabet in the first sentence of their constitution. How ballsy is that? After the introduction they start getting in to the meat of the thing.
Article I basically just declares that Iraq is a soveriegn democratic nation. Fair enough. But, it gets good in article II. “Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation: No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.” Well there you go. I mean, I know they take their religion seriously over there, and that’s all well and good. But, why does it have to permeate its way into their government? There are people in the US who would do the same thing here given the chance. I just don’t know why the two are so related. Practice your religion any way you like before you leave the house, but please don’t gunk up my government with it.
Article IV declares that Arabic and Kurdish are the two official languages of Iraq. I’m not terribly sure why the government gets involved in this either. The US is doing just fine without an official language. People complain that Spanish speaking people should have to learn English when they move to America, but that’s just racism at its heart. The market will force people to learn English where necessary (as it does already).
Article VII contains all of the bits where Iraq denounces terrorism. I suppose that was to be expected, but it feels more like United States propoganda than anything else. “Entities or trends that advocate, instigate, justify or propagate racism [or] terrorism … are banned.” This seems like it would violate any sort of freedom of speech (which I haven’t found in the constitution yet), but we all have our priorities, right?
Article IX-b declares militias that are not part of the official armed forces to be illegal. I mention it only because it differs with the US. I guess that’s really my main goal here – I want to figure out how different their government is from ours. Article IX-e reads as follows, “The Iraqi government shall respect and implement Iraq’s international commitments regarding the non-proliferation, non-development, non-production, and non-use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Associated equipment, material, technologies, and communications systems for use in the development, manufacture, production, and use of such weapons shall be banned.” Again, it seems a little weird for this to be in a constitution. Would the US agree to an amendment that made it illegal for our government to have nuclear weapons? Oh, and Article XI just declares that Baghdad is the capital city – kind of silly.
Chapter 2 of the constitution is titled “Rights and Freedoms”, so this is where it should get good. The first line of this chapter reads, “Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination because of sex, ethnicity, nationality, origin, color, religion, sect, belief, opinion or social or economic status.” Well played Iraq. I dig it. Heck, here’s a right that we don’t even have in the United States, “Each person has the right to personal privacy as long as it does not violate the rights of others or general morality.” Yeah, we don’t actually have an explicit right to privacy in the United States. You have to combine something like 3 different clauses in the constitution in order to find something like it. This would be a constitutional amendment I could get behind. But of course, the decision in Roe v. Wade was based on this weak right to privacy. Strengthening the right to privacy would only strengthen the grounds on which Roe v. Wade was decideed, so we’ll never actually see that happen in this country.
An Iraqi citizen is defined as anyone who is born to an Iraqi mother or an Iraqi father. So, it doesn’t matter where you are born geographically. I think that’s pretty cool. It has an air of inclusion. Iraq has an independent judiciary whose only superior is the law and the constitution. Every Iraqi is also guaranteed a trial by jury. This all seems to be pretty good.
Article XXII is a little weird in that it reads, “Work is a right for all Iraqis in a way that guarantees them a good life.” Once again, kind of weird to see that in a constitution, but whatever. I’ve never written a constitution after all. Article XXX is pretty interesting – “The state guarantees social and health insurance.” Yep – that’s right. I’m not even going to go into it.
I’m starting to wonder how different our constitution would be if it were written today rather than nearly 250 years ago. Article XXXIII – “Every individual has the right to live in a correct environmental atmosphere. The state guarantees protection and preservation of the environment and biological diversity.”
Well, Article XXXVI contains what I think is their right to free speech. But, they buggered it up pretty well, “The state guarantees, as long as it does not violate public order and morality: 1st – the freedom of expressing opinion by all means. 2nd – the freedom of press, publishing, media and distribution. 3rd – freedom of assembly and peaceful protest will be organized by law.” How necessary is the “as long as it does not violate public order and morality” loophole. They couldn’t get by without that part? That basically means, “You can say whatever you want as long as we like it.” That’s a pretty bogus freedom of speech if you ask me. I mean, I guess it’s better than what they had before, but how much better?
The next few pages of the constitution define their legislative branch. It’s kind of weird because they say that it is made up of the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. Then, they go on and on about what the Council of Representatives is and what they’re responsible and capable of doing, but all they say about the Council of Union is, “The makeup of the council, the conditions for membership and all things related to it will be organized by law.” Oh well good.
The president of Iraq is not elected directly by the people but by a 2/3 majority vote in the Council of Representatives. I’m not sure how they expect to get a 2/3 majority vote for a president, but that’s what it says. We don’t actually have the right to a direct vote for president in the state’s either, but we at least make it look that way. :o) It seems that the Iraqi president doesn’t actually have that much power anyway. He is basically a puppet for the Council of Representatives. The real power seems to be in the hands of the prime minister, which oddly enough seems to be appointed by the president.
They then get in to defining the judicial branch. The supreme court has the responsibility of declaring if a law is constitutional or not before it is enacted. That’s kind of weird isn’t it? They also seem to be able to decide if a law is constitutional after the fact like our supreme court can, which is nice.
Article 109 reads as follows, “Oil and gas is the property of all the Iraqi people in all the
regions and provinces.” Yep – that’s the whole thing. That’s all they had to say about it.
They then go ahead and describe how Regions are defined, which are just like our states. I skimmed through that part and the only interesting thing is that they seem to establish state rights by saying that whatever is not defined by the federal government will be controlled by the states and that the state’s laws take precedence.
The last part just defines little tidbits like how the constitution is amended and how things should work while they transition to this style of government. Overall I think the constitution is nice. I don’t particularly like their freedom of speech, but I guess it is what was expected. Hopefully the Iraqis will be able to enjoy the freedoms that are expressed in this constitution. That’s the real test I suppose – if they can actually enact this document into a working government.
Hopefully I provided a terse summary of the Iraqi constitution. I found myself interested so maybe someone else was as well. There ya go.